- 2000 (+/- 10%) RPM
- 67.14 CFM
- Aluminum & Copper
Awesome Performance. Awesome Price.
10/06/2014
This review is from: GELID Solutions GC-VGA02-01 1 Ball, 1 Sleeve VGA Cooler
Pros:
+ Absolutely spectacular performance over reference stock blower heatsink designs. I dropped 30 degrees at load and 20 at idle with fans at lowest speed. From 80 degrees at load to 50 and from 50 at idle to 30 idle on a GTX 680.
+ This even beats most 3rd party heatsinks by a decent measure, like Gigabyte's three fan configurations.
+ High board compatibility.
+ A LOT of peripheral heat sinks to satisfy most cards and situations.
+ The fans are UV reactive and look like bioluminescent blue jellyfish if you have a UV light. It actually looks pretty cool but then, how many times are you going to stick your head at the required angle to notice?
Cons:
- Tedious installation but honestly, what do you expect?
- The thermal tape provided for the smaller heatsinks can be a little lackluster, but if installed correctly pose no problem. Here are some tips: Use 80% or higher isopropyl alcohol to clean the ram and vrm surfaces thoroughly, this is important as it evaporates faster and cleans better. Do one at a time, don't clean them all ahead of time. Put the heatsink tape on the heatsink FIRST and leave the last paper film on it while you gently but firmly rub the heatsink on a flat hard surface like a table or desk. Then apply it firmly to the ram or vrm chip. Don't fuss with it. Get it right the first time. Also be sure to plan where you're going to run the fan wires first, as they will knock the heatsinks off if you're not careful. If you're installing this on a GTX680 a heatpipe will hit one of the vram heatsinks, use the lowest profile heatsink included to avoid this issue.
If you do that they won't fall off. I did two lazily and they did indeed fall off just from gravity. Do it right and it's no problem. You just need patience. I prefer it this way since it works and you can remove them without damaging anything. It's a practical win-win.
- This is perhaps the most idiotic and dumb design decision on this heatsink and it's that the fans aren't PWM. They're missing the fourth wire so while you can plug it into your card you CAN'T control them through your card and they will run at a very noisy 100%. I absolutely HATE this. It's ALMOST a deal breaker for me, but if you have a spare fan plug on your motherboard you can control the speed that way. At low the fans are quiet, nearly silent. It's just infuriating that you have to do it this way and it can't dynamically be controlled by the card itself. But, at the huge performance gain you get with the heatsink, it's not really necessary to worry too much about the fans.
- The heatsink and fan alone takes up two extra slots. So it becomes a three slot card. It's difficult to know whether it's worth it or not as they don't offer a slimmer version, but given the results it's a concession worth having if you have the room to spare.
- Instructions leave quite a bit to be desired. They're not the worst I've seen but they're also not terribly helpful. When in doubt, watch a youtube video of someone installing one of these.
Overall Review:
Despite a rather wordy Con list and a near dealbreaker fan situation I can't help but love this heatsink cooler. It just works and works extremely well if you install it properly. I also don't think it's difficult to install at all, just a little tedious but how else are you going to maintain a broad compatibility?
Ultimately, this is quieter than most stock fans and cools quite a bit better to boot. If you have a requirement for either, GET THIS. It's also worth remembering that graphics cards these days prefer to throttle performance rather than increase fan speeds so it's definitely worth have a cool card.
Share this review:
2 people found this review helpful.
Did you?
Yes
/
No
- Matthew M.
-
EggXpert
-
Owned For:
1 month to 1 year
LOADING...
